EVO 2016 Recap

EVO 2016:

This past weekend was EVO, the Evolution Championship (Chamionship according to the lanyard) Series hosted in Las Vegas, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It was a weekend full of challengers coming to face off at the ultimate tournament to be crowned champion of their favorite fighting game.

I was at EVO as an exhibitor showing two games with my friends at Serenity Forge at the MIX, Media Indie Exchange area. It was three rows of indie fighting games being presented by the talented game developers who made them.

There were games there that I have and haven’t seen before. Some of the team members from Team OK were at EVO displaying their game Chambara, a game known for it’s interesting design. It is a first person fighting game and when you’re in a fight, you can blend into the walls so your opponent can’t see you. I saw them at the Game Developers Conference, GDC earlier this year. Arena Gods was also being shown, which was one of my favorite games also shown at GDC. This time though, I got to meet one of the creators. It was awesome.

A new indie game that I hadn’t seen and fell for is called Little Bug. You play as a child that has a firefly friend who helps her reach new heights and they have to work together to find her mom. It’s super cute but can be really creepy at the same time.

On top of that, even though it was one of the games I was helping display, I enjoyed playing Mystic Melee and becoming somewhat decent at it. In fact, it was my first time playing it or even seeing when I was showing it at EVO. In the competitive mode, you play a character that learns new abilities and basically plays a form of basketball against an opponent that you can try to blast apart. It’s set to come out soon.

On top of those awesome games, I got to watch some of the Super Smash Bros Melee pools and semi finals. I was rooting for Mango one of my friend’s favorite players to win; sadly it didn’t work against team Liquid’s Hungrybox. However watching my first competitive Melee competition was amazing, especially since it was live.

EVO was crazy and exceeded my expectations. It was so much fun and I met so many different people. Sadly though, it’s in Las Vegas, which pretty much feels like it’s on fire. Its so hot there that I felt as though I was going to die. Writing this blog here in Colorado where my window is open and it has a beautiful breeze coming though makes me feel blessed to not have to live in Las Vegas.